Music Review-Rolled Gold, The Rolling Stones

As a teenager, I was a huge fan of the Rolling Stones. Of course, it was the sixties and the Stones were in their heyday.

When I was around 12 years old, The Stones played at our local ABC cinema, which was a venue for many bands back in those days. Sadly, I was not allowed to attend this concert, as my parents quite rightly, classed me as too young. Within a short space of time though, I was watching all sorts of other bands live, as my older brother kindly let me tag along with him.

I idolised The Rolling Stones, as a screaming teenager, and remained a fan for many years. Brian Jones death in 1965 affected me badly, as I felt as if I had lost a true friend. Brian Jones was one of the Stone's guitarists and Mick Taylor, previously of John Mayall's Blues Breakers, replaced him, initially.

For some reason Mick Taylor never quite seemed to fit in with the Stones, despite being a talented musician and he was soon replaced by Ronnie Wood. Ronnie had served his musical apprenticeship playing with The Small Faces.

The line up has pretty much stayed the same down the years. Bill Wyman moved on to other enterprises and these days the Stones appear less often. After all, they are pensioners in reality now.

As a teenager though, the Stones represented the face of rebellion, to me and many other fans.

The Stones were guaranteed to annoy your parents and could be relied upon to break the rules, on a regular basis. This may be hard to imagine now that they are older, although you only need to look into Keith Richards' well-worn face to see that he, for one, has led the 'rock and roll' lifestyle of debauchery.

I was interested to see this compilation on sale and wondered if many of the tracks would seem 'Out of Time' to quote one of the Stone's tracks.

Rolled Gold

The album was originally released in 1975 but this release includes some extra tracks. Perhaps it is the Stones' attempt to fully join the 21st Century. Rolled Gold is after all also on USB. There is the option to buy as a double CD and the price at Amazon is around Â£12.

The first half a dozen or so tracks on Rolled Gold, are from the Stone's early period of recording. They show their roots, which were firmly in Rhythm and Blues and the Blues. Bear in mind though that this rhythm and blues, is not the same as what is classified in that genre, these days.

Most, if not all, of these few tracks have previously been recorded by American Artists. Mick Jagger's lazy, drawling style, on Little Red Rooster, is as distinctive as ever.

Not Fade away takes me back to our schoolyard rendition of this song. It began like this:-

I'm gonna tell you how it's gonna be,

We're gonna have Lamb Chops for tea.

More than 40 years later, this memory is as fresh as ever.

The next dozen or so tracks move on a little in time but still remain firmly in the 1960's. Many of these tracks such as Satisfaction, The Last Time and Paint it Black I had bought as a school girl, out of my pocket money, as 45rpm singles. You know the old, small vinyl records. In fact, I still have most of these but they are well worn, a little jumpy and mostly mono recordings, so the sound quality is a little raw. It was good to hear these tracks in pristine fashion, although the more earthy sound seems more authentic.

The final tracks move on to the late sixties and into the 1970's. Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, I think that this is as far as we move in time, with this CD.

This suits me as I feel that The Rolling Stones were at their peak during the 10-14 years from around 1964. Perhaps that is just because I was at my peak then, who knows. The Rolling Stones have carried on recording and performing live, but to this day, I have never seen them live. I do not know if I would want to now though. Although, by all accounts The Stones still put on a great show, they really are too old for rock and roll.

The Rolled Gold CD has forty tracks, which are:

Come On which was one of the earliest singles from The Rolling Stones. This track has a basic, raw sound.

I Wanna Be Your Man and the following five tracks are in a similar vein.

Not Fade Away

Carol

Tell Me

It's All Over Now

Little Red Rooster

Heart of Stone

Time Is on My Side is an early ballad by the Stones.

Last Time. This track and tracks 12, 13, 17, 19 and 23 were massive hits for The Stones in the sixties.

Play With Fire

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

Get Off My Cloud

Free

As Tears Go By, was also recorded by Mick Jagger's partner at that time, Marianne Faithful, and I actually prefer her version.

Let's Spend the Night Together was always controversial. When this track was to be played on an American TV show, The Stones had to compromise and change the words slightly, for the sake of decency. The words were changed from Let's Spend the Night Together to, Let's Spend Some Time Together. This seems so silly nowadays. At the time the fact that the bad compromised, lost them some credibility amongst their young audience.

Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing in the Shadow

Ruby Tuesday was the B-side to The Last Time, I think.

Dandelion, for me, is one of the weak links on this CD.

She's a Rainbow

We Love You

2000 Light Years from Home-A slightly 'psychedelic' track

Jumpin' Jack Flash

Street Fighting Man is a track that I love. At the time this track was released it felt as if The Stones were rebelling a little again.

Sympathy for The Devil is a great track, which for me is memorable from the film "Interview with a Vampire". More recently, Guns and Roses covered this track

No Expectations

Let It Bleed

Midnight Rambler

Gimme Shelter

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Brown Sugar

Honky Tonk Woman

Wild Horses which has been a huge hit for Susan Boyle, in late 2009.

There is no doubting that the Rolling Stones have been a commercial success over the years. They have released many albums and singles.

The forty tracks on this CD have all been singles, or standout tracks on albums. This means that this album would be a perfect gift for a Rolling Stones fan, especially one from my generation, as they will know all the tracks so well.

However, there are many Stones' albums to choose from and, perhaps, this one is not their best. It will become memorable though, for being their first on USB also.

Overall, I recommend Rolled Gold as a great album to sing, dance and reminisce along to.